Two Positives:

Jonah: Great players command great attention and also deliver when it means the most. Ricky Rubio did just that by utilizing his leadership to take this game over and create those magical runs that kept the Wolves in this one. The fourth quarter was essentially Rubio vs Jarret Jack, and Ricky certainly held his own. He doesn’t do it by outscoring you, rather out-hustling and forcing your hand on defense. There were moments he screwed up — he missed his only free throw in a close game late in the fourth and gambled by going for a steal instead of fighting through a screen to cover an open Stephen Curry, who hits a long two that took the lead. But there’s no denying his heart and passion to help this team win a game.

Derek: Who else would I talk about here but Derrick “The Mailman 2.0″ Williams? Ok, I think I may be jumping the biggest of sharks, but it was great to see him rebound from the OKC game with a 23-13 game. Don’t look at the 15 shots to zero assists ratio, though.

Two Negatives:

Jonah: The Timberwolves aren’t used to leading ballgames, especially late in the fourth quarter. So when a talented team like the Warriors make their push, the Wolves just don’t understand how to hold them off. Their halfcourt offense becomes jumbled and mindless — we saw this as the final minute ticked away when Nikola Pekovic panicked in the post, saw no shot and passed out to Andrei Kirilenko, who subsequently airballs a go-ahead three point attempt. Turnovers start piling up and the score starts to even out when they start playing like this, and it never bodes well in the final result.

Derek: You see a stat like points in the paint and see a team edged another by 26 in a category that’s indicative of being able to score easy points. That was the Timberwolves today. Yet, this was also the Timberwolves today: lost the rebounding advantage, had fewer points off of turnovers, took seven more free throws– do I need to go on? Between the points and the paint and the free throws, they should’ve been able to wear out the Warriors, but the Warriors wound up outpacing the Timberwolves.

Two Observations:

Jonah: After some nice positioning and defense from Luke Ridnour, Jarret Jack forced up a long, step-back two with a one point lead. It rattles out, Wolves secure the ball and pass it off to Ridnour. Now, stop. There’s two options here, A) Allow Ridnour to push the ball and force the transition defense to beat him, or; B) Take a timeout to set up a better look, even with just seven seconds left on the clock. Not to say either option is wrong because they’re not. But I sorta cringe at the thought of allowing Ridnour to be the one to zoom up the court in a desperate fleet to decide the game. I feel like a better option is to set up Rubio for a controlled drive that could at least draw a foul. There will be differing opinions on this but that’s the way I feel.

Derek:  This game was weird. The only kind of weird that can come from Sunday afternoon basketball. If we insist on playing on Sunday, can we have games start after 5pm?

Next up: Wolves head south to take on Phoenix on Tuesday at 8 pm.

Two Positives 

Jonah: Lacking offensive firepower, it’s good to see the Wolves net well over 100 points in a game. And against a fairly stout Oklahoma City defense (Eighth in the league in defensive efficiency). The bench was huge, scoring a combined 59 points on 24-39 shooting. Not too shabby. Any chance at a win runs through solid bench production because the Wolves can’t afford to let any one player shoulder the load, especially when it comes to scoring. So the strong bench play was a positive sign, no doubt.

Tom: Ricky Rubio’s nine assists were good to see. But perhaps more encouraging was his confidence. It’s been a gradual journey back to health for Ricky, and he clearly isn’t quite there yet, but we are starting to see him truly accelerate up the court and show some confidence on his surgically-repaired knee. Getting that confidence back is going to be Rubio’s first step in recapturing last year’s magic, and he seems to be moving in that direction.

Two Negatives

Jonah: I understand that Greg Stiemsma had one hell of a game (13 points on 4-5 shooting, 5-6 from the free throw line and four blocks) but I’m sick of seeing Chris Johnson parked on the bench, especially in blowout games like these that are just an excuse for tryouts.

Tom: After several solid games in a row, Derrick Williams showed a pretty serious regression to the mean. To his credit, after missing both of his early 3-point attempts, he stopped chucking, but he struggled to finish at the rim when he took the ball inside. His final shooting line, 3-14, was less than inspirational. He may have been taken out of the game a little bit by a couple of bad early no-calls by officials, including one on which he was very nearly undercut while in mid-air.

Two Observations

Jonah: There’s a certain drinking game called, “Thunderstruck”. Here’s just a quick preview:

The harshest part is when you get stuck on a “Thunder” in the middle of a verse or the bridge. You’re talking sometimes 20 seconds or more of chugging! The Wolves seemed to be that guy who gets stuck on the longer parts, and it totally sucks. That is my interpretation of last night’s game.

Tom: Kendrick Perkins is the kind of big body that can give Nikola Pekovic an off night. If Pek can’t bull his way to the basket, he struggles in the post. On the other hand, it seems like the best way to get Pekovic on track against a slow-footed opponent like Perkins would be to run some high pick-and-rolls and allow him to take advantage of Pek’s slowness. That didn’t happen much last night.

Next up: 

Three Positives:

Jonah: In the five games before the All-Star break, Derrick Williams was averaging 16 and 9. He kept that streak of high-octane offense going tonight by posting 17 and 8 on 7-12 shooting. Actually, he began 7-9 before missing his next three shots. With the trade deadline looming, I firmly believe that trading him at this point in his development would be a major mistake because he’s starting to come into form and will prove to be a viable asset — For a major trade or strong role player — down the line once the team is healthy.

Tom: I glanced at Nikola Pekovic’s box score after the game and saw 7 and 18. I initially thought that was his shooting percentage and thought “Hmm, that seems low.” It was. Turns out those numbers were his offensive and total rebounds. Pek’s ACTUAL shooting percentage was 56.3%, on 9-16 shooting.

Admittedly, it’s pretty easy to abuse Philadelphia inside. But it’s great to see Pekovic scoring so easily, especially in the post on a series of turnarounds.

Derek: Oh you know…Andrei Kirilenko’s line of 15-5-5-3-2 on 4-8 shooting returning from extended time off…no big deal for the guy who has probably kept this team in the more games this season. I hope he doesn’t opt out, because I could watch him play for a long time.

Three Negatives:

Jonah: The Wolves’ bench, as depleted and exhausted as it is, was pretty awful tonight. Cunningham, Shved and Barea combined for 58 minutes and went just 5-22 from the field. Cunningham shoots too many mid-range jumpers, from where he’s desperately funking. Shved’s shot selection is also too sporadic and come from waiting too long in the offense to make his move. And Barea, well, is Barea; he’ll go through these kinds of nights at least once a week but might give you 20 points next time out. If there is any serious run left in this team, they’ll need the bench to become much more consistent.

Tom: Ricky Rubio turned the ball over six times, and several of them were in transition, which was a bummer. Even more of a bummer: his fourth turnover was a between-the-legs pass to Pek that the 76ers totally closed off. On a selfish level, I really really hope teams aren’t adjusting to Rubio’s flash. I JUST WANT HIM TO BE ABLE TO FLASH. That came out wrong.

Derek: You know what the Sixers did in the second half on offense while the Wolves’ was stalling? With Evan Turner running the offense, the Sixers tried and successfully managed to get the Wolves to switch D-Will on Turner from the longer, more athletic Kirilenko and Turner got pretty much whatever he wanted against him. Turner was even able to successfully assist on made baskets by players Derrick was guarding. Williams has improved, but we just need to see that consistency, although this could be attributable to returning to play after a week off.

Three Observations:

Jonah: Two mind-blowing statistics here: nine out of the 10 starters in this game had three or more fouls. The only one not to register a single foul all night was Derrick Williams. Hold your brains in. As result from all those fouls, both teams combined for 76 free throws, 44 for the Wolves.

Tom: I also cover the Boston Celtics, so I can say this with all sincerity: Treasure the fact that the Wolves aren’t completely tied up in the trade deadline rumors. It’s nice to be able to watch a game without wondering “Is this the last time I’m going to see Ricky Rubio in a Timberwolves uniform? How about Pekovic?”

Derek: I don’t know why, but I’ve never noticed that Pek does not have much in the way of shot blocking ability. He only averages 0.8 on the season, 0.7 on his career, and 0.9 Per 36 Minutes for his career, so I knew he wasn’t going to be accused of being elite in this area. I realized this tonight when a smaller player drove the lane against Pek and Pek managed to move his feet to stay in front of the 76er. When the player rose up for the shot, Pek just put his hand up to hope to alter it, instead of timing it to leave his feet.

It’s a skill that you either have or you don’t, but being a poor defensive playmaker while being a good defender is better than the other way around.

Next up: Wolves head to Oklahoma City to play the Thunder on Friday night, 7 pm.

Three Positives:

Jonah: Derrick Williams’ career has been far from satisfying like that feeling of eating a salad for dinner. And ever since he’s been granted the truest opportunity to start and make a difference, he’s struggled to become the NBA-ready, go-to guy. Until this one. Williams was huge, putting up 24 points on 17 shots and grabbing a career-high 16 rebounds. He and Rubio led the miraculous comeback late in the fourth quarter and extended the game as long as they possibly could. They fell short in the end but the Wolves wouldn’t have been anywhere near close if it weren’t for Williams enormous and dominating performance (Finally.)

Tom: I’m writing after Derek and Jonah, so I’ll just encapsulate both their positives within my own. It’s interesting watching Ricky Rubio and Derrick Williams develop chemistry. Kevin Love is clearly the best player on the Wolves, and Ricky Rubio is clearly the other player Minnesota plans to build around, and rightly so. His abilities are flashy, fun, useful and somewhat unprecedented.

But Williams’ skill-set almost seems better suited for Rubio’s. Love thrives on isolation plays and pick-and-pops. Williams thrives on soaring through the air and getting to the rim. While Rubio is certainly capable of running pick-and-pop plays with Love, it almost seems like a waste of his talent…like putting Heinz Ketchup on a $50 steak. What doesn’t seem like a waste: Rubio floating a perfectly-timed alley-oop over the rim so that Derrick Williams can slam it down.

Derek: Yes, he shot just 3-13, but Rubio played 40 minutes tonight, and flirted with a triple-double with his 18-9-10 statline. It’s great to see Rubio able to log heavy minutes once again and play well (shooting efficiency aside).

Three Negatives:

Jonah: Keeping the Jazz bigs out of the paint is no easy task, especially for the limp depth in the Wolves’ frontcourt. But getting outscored 54-30 in the paint is pretty embarrassing. The success at getting to the free throw line might make up for the large margin in some minds but not mine. Nikola Pekovic and Williams have to do a better job of holding down the paint on their own offensive end.

Tom: If you told me before the season that Minnesota’s starting shooting guard in the final game before the All-Star break would be averaging 11 points with a season eFG% of .648, I would have thought that Alexey Shved was playing up to and surpassing our wildest expectations. But he isn’t. Mickael Gelabale is (in an admittedly limited sample size).

Shved, for his part, has been struggling immensely. He doesn’t look comfortable handling the ball within the offense, nor does he look comfortable firing up jumper after jumper (he’s 24% from 3-point range in his last 13 games). After his initial success, it’s hard to watch him slip down the depth chart.

Derek: 12: Number of points the Timberwolves bench managed to muster up tonight.

43: Number of points the Jazz bench managed to put up tonight.

To be fair, the Timberwolves’ bench isn’t exactly loaded with scorers to begin with, but the guys that can contribute in that aspect — Alexey Shved and JJ Barea — were a combined 2-14 shooting. Off night, but certainly the bench’s performance tonight did little to off-set the Jazz’s dominance in the paint.

Two Observations:

Jonah: Chris Johnson got some burn, albeit just one minute at the end of the game. #FreeCJ

Tom: Minnesota’s transition defense was really bad, especially late. The Jazz shot 9-11 in transition, according to Synergy Sports, but two of the plays came late in the fourth quarter. On both of them, four of Minnesota’s defenders were running up the floor in a slow pack, leaving the point guard (Rubio once and Ridnour once) on an island against three on-coming Jazz players. In both cases, the Jazz acted too quickly for Minnesota to foul, and in both cases, Utah ended up with an easy dunk.

Next up: The All-Star Break puts a wrinkle in the NBA action, so the Wolves won’t be back on the court until next Wednesday, when they play the 76ers at 7 pm.

Two Positives

Jonah: Luke Ridnour posts his second 20-plus point performance in the last three games. He’s been the most sound, consistent scoring option nearly all season long. Whether that’s a good thing or not, it’s been working for the Wolves because they lead to rare wins like this.

Tom: Guys who were struggling to make it in the NBA make for fun stories when they start to find a niche, and Mickael Gelabale is finding a serious niche with the Wolves. Starting in his second consecutive game, Gelabale scored 11 points on just four field goal attempts and posted the team’s highest +/- of +16. Extremely efficient numbers for the T-Wolves newest guard.

Two Negatives

Jonah: Derrick Williams got himself into foul trouble in this one but does that really warrant just 16 minutes for the newly-starting power forward? He made the most of his time on the court with 12 points and a +/- score in the black. But he needs to find a way to keep himself on the court, keep engaged in the game and impress Adelman just enough to keep him there. Not an easy feat.

Tom: Don’t get me wrong, I loved seeing Ricky Rubio climb over double digits in his assist count tonight as much as the next guy. But Rubio turned the ball over quite a bit down the stretch and finished with seven turnovers overall. 10 assists or not, seven turnovers is entirely too many.

Two Observations

Jonah: JJ Barea came back tonight after missing last night’s game with a tweaked foot. He didn’t contribute much (five points, 2-4 shooting in just 15 minutes) but Barea is and will continue to be an offensive focal point for the duration of the season. Face it, do we really have a better option?

Tom: I mentioned above that it’s fun to see Mickael Gelabale finding a niche. Less fun is seeing Gelabale’s fellow niche-finder Chris Johnson get yet another DNP-CD tonight for reasons that continue to escape me. Terry Porter’s rotations in Rick Adelman’s absence were an utter nightmare in a lot of ways, but at least he found minutes for Johnson, and Johnson rewarded him by playing shockingly good basketball. I’m not saying that Chris Johnson’s PER of 24.8 isn’t a product of a small sample size (because it is), I’m just saying that until Johnson STOPS producing at that level, wouldn’t it make sense to, you know, let him produce?

Next up: The Wolves face the Utah Jazz at the Target Center on Wednesday. Game starts at 8.

Two Positives:

Jonah: For the fourth straight contest Luke Ridnour posted a shooting percentage better than 50%. Last night, Ridnour shot 7-13 from the field going for 17 points, making his two-game total a combined 37 points. Ridnour’s been hot on the rumor mill and it’s certainly a shame but I guess there’s no better time for him to start warming up and allow the other end sweeten the deal in order to obtain the veteran point guard.

Tom: Aside from Luke Ridnour, I have very little positive to say. Mickael Gelabale played well. Chris Johnson deserves more minutes. You guys know the drill.

Two Negatives:

Jonah: Timberwolves shot 15 free throws in the first quarter and only managed to finish the game with 25 total attempts (Not to mention they only converted on 16 of them). The first quarter was closely competitive with the Wolves only behind one but similar trends and feelings set in as the Wolves lost grasp of any chance at coming back. Failing to stay aggressive and force their way back to the free throw line was a large part of that.

Tom: Every time the Wolves take a step forward, they seem to take a much larger step backward. For example: A moral(ish) victory against New York on Friday vs. a total and utter loss against Memphis. We can talk about losing the turnover battle (19-13), the rebound battle (36-33), the assists (30-24) and the 3-pointers (just like every other night). But individually, none of these things are the issue. The problem is that when a team loses every single one of those categories, even if it’s by a little bit, all of them add up. And when all of them add up, you get a final score like 105-88.

Two Observations:

Jonah: Mickael Gelabale in Andrei Kirilenko’s presence, although not quite the stat-stuffing, court surfing monster that AK is, has had a solid 10 game stretch, especially in terms of shooting. He’s now shooting 54% from the field in the last 10 contests, chipping in 14 points on 7-10 shooting in this one. The story goes on and on for the Wolves in terms of injuries and lost opportunities but at least able-bodied role players such as Gelabale are doing their part to keep things interesting and, perhaps most importantly, fight for the right to stay in the NBA.

Tom: Nikola Pekovic played 30 minutes and took just five field goal attempts. Only one of those field goal attempts happened in the second half. Worse: He accounted for just one of the P&R Roll Man opportunities for Minnesota. If you aren’t using Pek’s massive pick-setting body and solid footwork on offense, there’s really no reason to have him out there. He’s a very good offensive player, but if the team doesn’t utilize him correctly, he’s not going to do much.

Next up: Wolves stay on the road to take on Cleveland tonight at 6 pm.

Two Positives:

Jonah: What I’ve observed since Ricky Rubio’s minute limit was lifted is how slow he is out of the gates. He misses a lot of shots and never seems completely comfortable within the flow of the offense, yet he still commands. Tonight was no different, in that he began 0-for-3 from the field but then started to calm the jitters and find himself within the flow. He put up one hell of a line of 18-11 and it could’ve been so much better, going just 6-14 from the floor and an ugly 5-9 from the free throw line. What sprung his numbers was his ability to sprint off an inbounds pass and blow past everyone on the court on his way to the hoop. It led to free throw galore and really threw the Knicks off-kilter. That speed is what he’s been lacking since returning from his ACL injury, which only signifies the knee is getting better and better each and every day.

Tom: Dear Rubio-Williams alley-oops: I missed you terribly.

Incidentally, this is a gorgeous play. The Wolves used to run these little fake-screen slips last year, but I can’t recall another occasion in which Williams moved so confidently without the ball. And WHAT a pass from Rubio. He floats it at exactly the right height for exactly as long as it needs to float. Wonderful to see those two working together again.

Two Negatives:

Jonah: It’s hard to fault Derrick Williams directly for Carmelo Anthony’s big night but his defense didn’t exactly hinder the cause either. He was tough in the post — for the most part — and seemed to get a hand in Melo’s face on the perimeter. But if you really break it down, it didn’t matter who was covering Melo; it was just another one of those nights.

Tom: I would second Jonah’s comments that Williams couldn’t have done much against Melo, since nobody can do much about Melo on a night like tonight. I would also add that, once again in this broken record of a season, the Wolves were 1-13 from 3-point range. More on this in my observation.

Two Observations:

Jonah: Greg Stiemsma is the new bad boy in the NBA. It began with subtle chips and tons of jawing and slowly progressed to the point where Matt Barnes and company couldn’t stand Stiemer’s ways. Amare Stoudemire was Stiemer’s next victim, who got T’d up after schooling Stiemer in the post — multiple times, might I add — and then showed off by backing into him in an attempt to show him up.

Tom: If the Wolves keep up this level of 3-point shooting (they are currently averaging .302 on 3-point attempts), it would be the 16th worst 3-point shooting season since the 3-point line was added. The Wolves would also be the only team in the bottom 20 that wasn’t from 1990 or earlier, when teams were still adjusting to the fact that a 3-point line existed.

Except for the Wolves, the lowest team from 2000 on is, somewhat ironically, the 2009-10 Lakers, who also won the championship. They are ranked 32nd at .341.

Next up: Wolves soiled their chance at winning some on this homestand and now head on the road beginning Sunday in Memphis at 5 pm.